Great Dismal Speaks —

An Afrosurreal Eco-poem for Langston

I was first introduced to eco-poetry in 2015. John Shoptaw read his eco-poems during a Lyrics & Dirges reading at Pegasus on Shattuck in Berkeley. A few months later, during Kearny Street’s Interdisciplinary Writers Lab, Brynn Saito told us about an eco-poem she had written as the voice of a river that was recently undammed so that its waters could bring life back to the surrounding ecosystem.

Her description of the river made me think what freedom, what liberation song that river must be singing!

I wondered, what is the opposite of that liberation, and what would an eco-poem be like from that opposite perspective?

Close to where I grew up in North Carolina, a swamp called “The Great Dismal” runs along the western side of Highway 17 just north of Elizabeth City and further north across the Virginia border to the Chesapeake Bay.

This swamp plays a huge role in the history of American slavery, as runaway slaves such as Nat Turner and Dred Scott sought their personal safety and liberation by hiding and living in swamps for extended periods of time.

This is a tribute to Langston Hughes. The last line is directly inspired by his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”

Great Dismal Swamp Welcomes a Runaway Slave

I’m saturated sponge of land
soaking up all
where the waters seep

I’m lazy lift
of alligator eyelid
slow to rouse
from dark, dank sleep

I’m drawn out sound
of lily pad protests
as fat bullfrogs
slowly leap

I’m squelch of soil
under feet that never rush
always creep

I’m overflow of displaced sorrow
Death visits me often
always on the reap

I’m s t r e t c h e d — w i d e
from Carolina’s Cape Fear
up north
to Virginia’s Chesapeake

I’m your first stop,
only chance, last resort
to escape the master’s keep

I’ve lost count of the bodies I hold
but each one housed
a soul grown deep.